Draft Theses, March 4 (17), 1917[1]

Published:First published in 1924 inLenin Miscellany II.

      Published according to the manuscript.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1964,

      Moscow,Volume 23,

      pages287-291.Translated:M. S. Levin, The Late Joe Fineberg and and OthersTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      2002

      (2005).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Informationreaching Zurich from Russia at this moment,
March 17, 1917, is so scanty, and events in our country are developing so
rapidly, that any judgement of the situation must of needs be very
cautious.

Yesterday’sdispatches indicated that the tsar had already abdicated
and that the new, Octobrist-Cadet
government[2]had already made an agreement with other representatives
of the Romanov dynasty. Today there are reports from England that the tsar
has not yet abdicated, and that his whereabouts are unknown. This suggests
that he is trying to put up resistance, organise a party, perhaps even an
armed force, in an attempt to restore the monarchy. If he succeeds in
fleeing from Russia or winning over part of the armed forces, the tsar
might, to mislead the people, issue a manifesto announcing immediate
conclusion of a separate peace with Germany!

Thatbeing the position, the proletariat’s task is a pretty complex
one. There can be no doubt that it must organise itself in the most
efficient way, rally all its forces, arm, strengthen and extend its
alliance with all sections of the working masses of town and country in
order to put up a stubborn resistance to tsarist reaction and crush the
tsarist monarchy once and for all.

Anotherfactor to bear in mind is that the new government that has
seized power in St. Petersburg, or, more correctly, wrested it from the
proletariat, which has waged a victorious, heroic and fierce struggle,
consists of liberal bourgeois and landlords whose lead is being followed by
Kerensky, the spokesman of the democratic peasants and, possibly, of that
part of the workers who have forgotten their internationalismand have been led on to the bourgeois path. The new government is composed
of avowed advocates and sup porters of the imperialist war with Germany,
i.e., a war in alliance with the English and French imperialist
governments, a war for the plunder and conquest of foreign lands—Armenia,
Galicia, Constantinople, etc.

Thenew government cannot give the peoples of Russia (and the nations
tied to us by the war) either peace, bread, or full freedom. The working
class must therefore continue its fight for socialism and peace, utilising
for this purpose the new situation and explaining it as widely as possible
among the masses.

Thenew government cannot give the people peace, because it represents
the capitalists and landlords and because it is tied to the English and
French capitalists by treaties and financial commitments. Russian
Social-Democracy must therefore, while remaining true to internationalism,
first and foremost explain to the people who long for peace that it cannot
be won under the present government. Its first appeal to the people
(March 17) does not as much as mention the chief and basic issue of the
time, peace. It is keeping secret the predatory treaties tsarism concluded
with England, France, Italy, Japan, etc. It wants to conceal from the
people the truth about its war programme, the fact that it stands for
continuation of the war, for victory over Germany. It is not in a position
to do what the people so vitally need: directly and frankly propose to all
belligerent countries an immediate ceasefire, to be followed by peace based
on complete liberation of all the colonies and dependent and unequal
nations. That requires a workers’ government acting in alliance with,
first, the poorest section of the rural population, and, second, the
revolutionary workers of all countries in the war.

Thenew government cannot give the people bread. And no freedom can
satisfy the masses suffering from hunger due to shortages and inefficient
distribution of available stocks, and, most important, to the seizure of
these stocks by the landlords and capitalists. It requires revolutionary
measures against the landlords and capitalists to give the people bread,
and such measures can be carried out only by a workers’ government.

Lastly,the new government is not, in a position to give the people
full freedom, though in its March 17 manifesto it speaks of nothing but
political freedom and is silent on other, no less important, issues. The
new government has already endeavoured to reach agreement with the Romanov
dynasty, for it has suggested recognising the Romanovs, in defiance of the
people’s will, on the understanding that Nicholas II would abdicate in
favour of his son, with a member of the Romanov family appointed regent. In
its manifesto, the new government promises every kind of freedom, but has
failed in its direct and unconditional duty immediately to implement such
freedoms as election of officers, etc., by the soldiers, elections to the
St. Petersburg, Moscow and other City Councils on a basis of genuinely
universal, and not merely male, suffrage, make all government and public
buildings available for public meetings, appoint elections to all local
institutions and Zemstvos, likewise on the basis of genuinely universal
suffrage, repeal all restrictions on the rights of local government bodies,
dismiss all officials appointed to supervise local government bodies,
introduce not only freedom of religion, but also freedom from religion,
immediately separate the school from the church and free it of control by
government officials, etc.

Thenew government’s March 17 manifesto arouses the deepest distrust,
for it consists entirely of promises and does not provide for the immediate
carrying out of a single one of the vital measures that can and should be
carried out right now.

Thenew government’s programme does not contain a single word on the
eight-hour day or on any other economic measure to improve the worker’s
position. It contains not a single word about land for the peasants, about
the uncompensated transfer to the peasants of all the estates. By its
silence on these vital issues the new government reveals its capitalist and
landlord nature.

Onlya workers’ government that relies, first, on the overwhelming
majority of the peasant population, the farm labourers and poor peasants,
and, second, on an alliance with the revolutionary workers of all countries
in the war, can give the people peace, bread and full freedom.

Therevolutionary proletariat can therefore only regard the revolution
of March 1 (14) as its initial, and by no means complete, victory on its
momentous path. It cannot but set itself the task of continuing the fight
for a democratic republic and socialism.

Todo that, the proletariat and the R.S.D.L.P. must above all utilise
the relative and partial freedom the new government is introducing, and
which can be guaranteed and extended only by continued, persistent and
persevering revolutionary struggle.

Thetruth about the present government and its real attitude on
pressing issues must be made known to all working people in town and
country, and also to the army. Soviets of Workers’ Deputies must be
organised, the workers must be armed. Proletarian organisations must be
extended to the army (which the new government has likewise promised
political rights) and to the rural areas. In particular there must be a
separate class organisation for farm labourers.

Onlyby making the truth known to the widest masses of the population,
only by organising them, can we guarantee full victory in the next stage of
the revolution and the winning of power by a workers’ government.

Fulfilmentof this task, which in revolutionary times and under the
impact of the severe lessons of the war can be brought home to the people
in an immeasurably shorter time than under ordinary conditions, requires
the revolutionary proletarian party to be ideologically and organisation
ally independent. It must remain true to internationalism and not succumb
to the false bourgeois phraseology meant to dupe the people by talk of
“defending the fatherland” in the present imperialist and predatory war.

Notonly this government, but even a democratic bourgeois republican
government, were it to consist exclusively of Kerensky and other Narodnik
and “Marxist” social-patriots, cannot lead the people out of the
imperialist war and guarantee peace.

Forthat reason we cannot consent to any blocs, or alliances, or even
agreements with the defencists among the workers, nor with the
Gvozdyov-Potresov-Chkhenkeli Kerensky, etc., trend, nor with men who, like
Chkheidze and others, have taken a vacillating and indefinite stand on thiscrucial issue. Those agreements would not only inject an element of
falseness in the minds of the masses, making them dependent on the Russian
imperialist bourgeoisie, but would also weaken and undermine the leading
role of the proletariat in ridding the people of imperialist war and
guaranteeing a genuinely durable peace between the workers’ governments of
all countries.

[1]Thefirst news of the February bourgeois-democratic revolution in Russia
reached Lenin on March 2 (15), 1917. Reports of the victory of the
revolution and the advent to power of an Octobrist-Cadet government of
capitalists and landlords appeared in theZürcher PostandNeue Zürcher Zeitungby the evening of March 4 (17). Lenin had
drawn up a rough draft of theses, not meant for publication, on the tasks
of the protetariat in the revolution. The theses were immediately sent via
Stockholm to Oslo for the Bolsheviks leaving for Russia.

[2]Leninuses the appellationOctobrist-Cadetto describe the
bourgeois Provisional Government formed at 3 p.m. on March 2 (15), 1917 by
agreement between the Provisional Committee of the State Duma and the
Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik leaders of the Executive Committee of
the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. The government was
made up of Prince G. Y. Lvov (Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior),
the Cadet leader P. N. Milyukov (Minister of Foreign Affairs), the
Octobrist leader A. I. Guchkov (Minister of War and Acting Minister of the
Navy) and other representatives of the big bourgeoisie and landlords. It
also included A. F. Kerensky, of the Trudovik group, who was appointed
Minister of Justice.

Themanifesto of March 4(17) mentioned by Lenin
later on was originally drawn up by Menshevik members of the Petrograd
Soviet Executive Committee. It set out the terms on which the Executive was
prepared to support the Provisional Government. In the course of
negotiations with the Duma Committee, it was revised by P. N. Milyukov and
became the basis of the Provisional Government’s first appeal to the
people.